BLM Concludes Horse Gather in the Desatoya Mountains

Carson City, Nev. - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Carson City District, Stillwater Field Office concluded the Desatoya Horse Gather on Tuesday, August 21. The preliminary numbers of animals gathered are 429 wild horses. Of those gathered 24 stallions were released back to the range. The gather area is located approximately 70 miles east of Fallon, Nev. within Churchill and Lander counties.

The purpose of the gather was to reduce the herd populations of excess wild horses and to implement population growth controls to achieve or maintain a thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands.

Over the next 10 years, the BLM intends to use annual bait/water trapping in order to administer the fertility control vaccine and remove small numbers of excess wild horses in order to achieve and/or maintain the AML range and sex ratio.

The gathered wild horses were transported to the Palomino Valley Wild Horse Adoption Center, located about 20 miles north of Sparks, Nev. and the Gunnison, Utah facility where they are being prepared for adoption under the BLM’s wild horse adoption program. Un-adopted horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (Act). The BLM does not sell or send any horses to slaughter.

For more information, please contact Lisa Ross, BLM Carson City public affairs specialist, at 775-885-6100.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands.